No ocean to surf? No problem. Rivers in Germany, China and Switzerland have become popular destinations for surfers who are stuck inland.

In Munich it is not unusual to see people in wetsuits setting off to conquer the Eisbach, a small man-made river that branches off from the Isar River in the city’s downtown area.

According to the BBC, when the Eisbach’s flowing current meets a deeper section of the river the result is a steady standing wave – a surfer’s dream.

“It’s flowing so fast – around 25 square meters of water per second,” Quirin Stamminger, editor of Eisbach River surfing zine, told CNN. “The wave is formed by fast water crashing into slow water. This creates the undercurrent which forms the tube.”

The sport’s popularity in Europe has spawned an official competition. The second European River Surfing Championships were held in Munich in Aug. 2012.

In Switzerland, a country with absolutely no access to the ocean, surfing on the Reuss and Thun Rivers has become a happy alternative for wave chasers.

But Europe is not the only area with river-surfing fever – the craze has also caught on in China. China’s Qiantang River in Hangzhou hosts an annual surfing festival on the river’s wave that has been dubbed “Silver Dragon.”

The swell is formed by a phenomenon called a tidal bore, when an incoming tide forms a wave that travels up the river against its current. According to CNN, the tidal bore on the Qiantang River is the largest in the world.